


Make You Smile

by prettypurpleflower



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-02
Updated: 2014-08-02
Packaged: 2018-02-11 12:00:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2067354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prettypurpleflower/pseuds/prettypurpleflower
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Dave goes through a rough breakup, Kurt would move mountains to cheer him up again. No matter what he tries, nothing seems to work, though. Until he decides to take a new approach...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Make You Smile

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TotoroPirate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TotoroPirate/gifts).



> Written for the Kurtofsky Gift Exchange 2014
> 
> ~ I couldn't be happier that this gift is for the lovely TotoroPirate, who has brought me as much joy as she brought tears. But most importantly she is one of the people who inspired me to write again.   
> If you haven't, yet, definitely go check her work out (but really, who hasn't?).

'I just, I don't know what to do. He's been down now for ages and it doesn't seem to get better. At all.'

'See, that's why I don't do relationships. So many responsibilities and inevitable pain. What for? I can tell you what for, to have a regular fuck. Coincidentally that's also the reason marriage never works, after a while married people stop fucking.'

'God, Sebastian! Stop being so crude! And you're not helping at all, by the way!'

There’s a laugh at the other end of the line. If worry hadn’t taken up all of his energy, Kurt would have rolled his eyes. All that’s left was his exasperation, though.

'I don't know what you expected when you called me. I'm the last person anyone should ever consider talking to about relationships. Or worse, break ups.'

'Don't act like I'm dumb. I know that. It's… I just thought… You're his friend as well, maybe you have an idea how to get him out of this depression his falling into?'

'How about you get him a nice little rebound? Sex is always a solution.'

'Argh! It's not! You can’t compare everyone to your one-track mind!’  
‘Yes, it is. It’s all about doing someone new and looking at a new face, instead of having your thoughts stuck on the face of your old depressing ex.’  
‘That’s… Sebastian, that’s genius. Everything here reminds him of Marc. Even when he tries to be busy it’ll draw him back in. It’s a vicious circle. I just have to get him out of the city and therefore away from his bad memories. Seeing something new until he doesn’t care about the old anymore.’  
‘That is _not_ what I said. I talked about sex. I’m telling you, sex will be-‘  
Kurt didn’t listen. He murmured a distracted goodbye and hung up on an indignant Sebastian. There were exciting activities to plan.

—-

‘Dave?’ Kurt looked at him with a pout.

‘What do you want?’ Dave asked listlessly.

‘Remember how Santana gave me this gift certificate on my birthday for that spa I love so much?’

‘You mean the free weekend that she just gave you so she’d get to sneak into your apartment with her girlfriend, but somehow you never let her have the satisfaction?’  
Kurt coughed. He hadn’t known Dave was aware of those details. They weren’t secret, but Kurt had never felt a need to talk about it, either.

‘Well, yeah. That one. Anyway, it’ll expire soon and I would hate to let it go to waste. No one wants to come with me, though.’

Dave narrowed his eyes, suspicious.

‘Not even Rachel?’ Crossing his arms over his chest, Kurt pursed his lips.

‘Rachel? I want a relaxing weekend. She talks so much, if I went with her I’d need a whole vacation afterwards.’ He let his arms fall down again. ‘Please, Dave. It would really mean a lot to me.’

Dave sighed. Lately that appeared to be all he was doing. ‘Okay, if it’ll make you happy.’

‘Extremely.’

—-

‘And as we breathe in, we raise our arms through our sides. We stretch our arms up, our backs are straight and our feet firmly on the ground.’

Dave quashed the urge to yawn. He couldn’t believe he had just endured over an hour of yoga. Next to him, Kurt was practically glowing, fully taken up by the activity. It wasn’t a surprise since Kurt was an avid yoga fan and actually attented classes at his gym regularly.

Dave didn’t get it at all. Not even why people called it a sport. It was only… stretching. For him, sport meant adrenaline, running and feeling energy rushing up in him afterwards. This just made him terribly sleepy.

‘We breathe out and slowly lower arms again. Thank you for joining today.’

Well, perhaps it was the voice of the instructor that made him so sleepy, Dave pondered. If it was possible to have a voice with sleeping pill effect, he was sure this woman possessed it. Looking around, he noticed they were the only ones left. Kurt grinned contently at him.

‘Wasn’t that fantastic? I feel really calm and energized now.’

All Dave wanted was to agree with Kurt, see him smile even brighter. But he couldn’t. While the yoga class might have left Kurt with more energy, it had drained the last bit out of Dave and he couldn’t muster the will to continue this.

'This doesn't work, Kurt. I’m sorry, I'm going home.'  
‘No! You just need to give it a bit more time,’ Kurt begged him desperately.  
‘No, Kurt. I feel stupid doing yoga. I fall asleep during meditation. And those facials itch.’

Kurt’s face fell. ‘Okay, I’ll go get our stuff.’

Seeing Kurt so dejected made Dave feel even worse, but he couldn’t change it. Wellness just wasn’t his thing. He tried to avoid thinking and all this did was give him more time to think.

‘You don’t have to come with me, you know? You can stay until tomorrow evening like you planned.’  
Smiling sadly, Kurt shook his head. ‘No, it wouldn’t feel right.’ There was no way Kurt would be able to relax, while Dave sat at home getting more and more depressed.

 _Great_ , Dave thought, _now you’re dragging others down with you._

—-

  
‘Let’s go hiking!’ Almost jumping up and down in excitement, Kurt looked at Dave eagerly.  
‘We live in New York City. Where do you wanna go? Up the Empire State Building?’  
‘Haha. I’m being serious, you grouch.’

Dave blinked at him. Internally he debated if he should argue but ultimately decided it was too much effort. Kurt would run his head against a wall anyway. Watching him do it was even sort of cute, Dave thought. Lately he had been utterly missing any motivation to rile Kurt up, however. He shrugged sluggishly.

‘Whatever. If you want to. But I’m not searching for a track.’

Kurt beamed at him happily. Yeah, Dave would do a lot to keep that smile on Kurt’s face.

—-

They had been walking for hours now. Somehow, Kurt had actually found a place to hike and had driven them three hours to a small spur of the Appalachians. No matter how often Dave had protested that this wasn’t necessary, Kurt had insisted. Time and time again he had claimed that he had planned on going hiking for ages anyway, that he loved how wonderful it was to be in harmony with nature like that. Dave hadn’t believed him for a second. As far as he knew, Kurt hated nature. He was annoyed by the noises animals made and hated how hard it was to get mud and grass stains out of his designer clothes. But Dave kept quiet, knowing Kurt was doing all of this just for him. Because he thought it would cheer him up. It was obvious, though, that Dave was right. Kurt was sweaty, hot and exhausted. He even doubted whether he could go on much longer. Sighing heavily, Dave took pity on him.

‘Wait, Kurt. There’s a viewing platform, see? Let’s go there and then leave. I don’t feel like going further up.’

Kurt looked at him skeptically, but eventually his shoulders slumped in relief. ‘If you’re sure. We can continue walking if that would help.’

Putting a hand on Kurt’s lower back, Dave steered him towards the platform. ‘No, all good.’ When Kurt’s eyes caught the view, how far it went down, trees everywhere, for a second he forgot why they were here. ‘It’s beautiful. And so peaceful.’

‘Mhm.’ Turning back, Kurt realized that Dave was barely even looking. His eyes were downcast and his expression sad once again.

‘Hey, this is your thing, isn’t it? You were right all along, walking up here _was_ actually worth it. Doesn’t that make you smile? Even a tiny bit?’ Dave forced a smile, which ended up rather resembling a grimace. He sighed again. ‘I’m sorry. It’s not you. You’re awesome and it’s great that you’re trying, I just don’t feel like it at the moment.’

—-

Kurt was at the end of his wit.  
He had tried everything imaginable in his attempt of cheering Dave up.  
There was nothing left. And if he was truly honest, Kurt was slightly worried that this meant Dave would have to remain depressed for the rest of his life.  
He looked at his friend, who sat slumped and defeated on his couch. ‘Do you… want to do something?’  
Dave’s head snapped up in surprise. ‘What? No suggestion? No more hiking, yoga or wellness activities to show me _the bright side of life_?’ he said, drawing quotation marks into the air.  
Kurt winced. Had his ideas been really that bad? He had only had the best intentions after all.  
Lowering his head again, Dave sighed.   
‘I’m sorry. You are being the best friend I could imagine and all I can do is bite your head off for it. Your ideas were great, I’m just not in the mood to feel calm and cleansed and happy about life.’  
Kurt bit his lip hesitatingly. Perhaps he could still help, even if it meant admitting his approaches had been wrong.  
‘Well, what are you in the mood for then?’

Dave thought about it for a moment.  
‘I wanna get trashed.’

  
—-

'You know, this is cleansing, too. The dirty kind of cleansing.'  
Kurt narrowed his eyes, contemplating Dave’s words carefully before realizing that they made no sense at all.  
‘What?’ The word was spoken slowly, since Kurt hoped it would conceal how difficult speaking had turned and how much he was slurring already.  
‘Your natural relaxing… stuff ideas… they, like, cleanse you with butterflies and rays of sunshine carrying your worries away. But alcohol, dude, alcohol just burns the shit outta you.’  
 _It really isn’t fair_ , Kurt thought, _that he can drink so much and still sound as clear as a… as a nightingale._ Kurt blinked, confused by his own thoughts. That wasn’t the right word, was it? He grabbed his glass and brought it to his lips, only to find it actually empty.  
He turned to Dave, who was watching him with an amused smile.   
The words left Kurt’s mouth before he could stop them. ‘Dance with me.’  
Dave grinned. ‘Sure you can handle that?’  
He hopped off his stool confidently, but he couldn’t help swaying and reaching for the bar when his feet touched the ground.  
With a smirk, Kurt got up as elegantly as he could manage, which was decidedly less elegant than usually but still much better than Dave.  
‘Are _you_ sure you can handle me?’

  
—-

Neither of them was certain how they had gotten to where they were now.  
After they had finally cut their way through the crowd on the dance floor and found a little bit of clear space, they had started moving to the music.  
Kurt was in his element, rolling his hips and shimmying as if his life depended on it, while Dave awkwardly stepped from one foot to the other. Completely off-beat.  
Without ceasing to dance, Kurt spoke up.  
‘What’s wrong? I know you can do a lot better than that.’  
Dave shrugged.   
‘You look hilarious.’  
‘I know. It’s called having fun. Here, I’ll show you.’  
He took Dave’s hands in his and began waving their arms up and down sillily. Then he started jumping, left to right, right to left.  
‘ _When I am with you there’s no place I’d rather be._ ’  
The alcohol turned Kurt’s voice loud and a bit off-key. However, Kurt didn’t care.  
When the hold on his hands suddenly tightened, Kurt stopped moving and looked up at Dave curiously. The sight made him freeze, his heart clenched excitedly in his chest.  
There before him stood his best friend, bending over in silent - maybe just muffled by the music - laughter, tears running down his cheeks.  
Kurt let go of his hands, just to throw his arms around Dave’s neck, effectively drawing him into a tight hug.  
As he calmed down, Dave put his hands on Kurt’s waist in a practiced motion. He looked at Kurt’s beaming expression questioningly.  
‘Hm?’  
‘It’s just been so long since I’ve seen you this happy.’  
‘Being with you tends to do that.’ It wasn’t clear what did it, the happy expression, the words. Kurt couldn’t fight it any longer. He dragged down Dave’s head a few inches and pressed their lips together. The kiss was sloppy, the alcohol still coursing through their veins strongly.

Dave’s eyes were dark and hazy with lust as he breathed, ‘Let’s get out of here.’

  
—-

The way to Kurt’s apartment had been shorter than they remembered. Too busy touching, kissing, exploring each other to have any sense of time. Too wrapped up in each other to notice the cab driver’s annoyance. 

Getting up the stairs without breaking contact was difficult, their hands slowing down to a lazy caressing. The second the bedroom door closed behind them, however, they came to life again. As Dave’s mouth left a wet trail on Kurt’s neck, Kurt’s eyes fluttered closed. 

'So hot,' he whispered. Suddenly he felt Dave’s arms around him. As his feet stopped touching the ground, Kurt’s eyes flew open. Dave had picked him. Dave had honest to God picked him up like it was nothing. Burning desire curled inside of him. Dave’s lips were glistening from kissing him. His arm muscles working hard to hold Kurt, bringing his sleeves close to ripping. Kurt wondered if he had ever seen anyone as attractive as Dave. Why hadn’t he noticed before? How?

After he walked up to the bed, Dave set him down gently. Impatiently Kurt kicked off his shoes, not caring where they landed. He pulled at Dave’s shirt, trying to get it over his head but somehow all he managed was to get Dave tangled in it. Giving up and waiting for the man to get it done himself, Kurt let himself fall back into the soft mattress.

‘Dave,’ Kurt whined, drawing the name out. ‘Kiss me, Dave.’ It came out slightly slurred, but Kurt didn’t care anymore how he sounded. Finally Dave had found his way out of his shirt and started crawling towards Kurt. The sight made Kurt’s breath hitch. The chest in front of him was full of thick, dark hair. One of his biggest weaknesses, one of his little secrets. Because Kurt knew his friends would tease him mercilessly if they found out. However, there was no one there besides him and Dave. So he stretched out his hand and tugged lightly at Dave’s chest hair. The answer was a deep growl that sent a spark right to Kurt’s cock. ‘Never ever stop kissing me, Dave,’ Kurt whispered. Dave shook his head slightly. His eyes were glassy, but he seemed still steady propped up on his arms over Kurt. ‘Won’t.’ Then he leaned down and sealed their lips together again. Everything felt good and all Kurt wanted was more, just more, but his limbs felt too heavy to move. Dave settled down beside him without breaking contact. The kiss turned slower, lazier. It didn’t take much longer until sleep claimed them both.

—-

When Kurt woke up, the first thing he noticed was that whatever his head was lying on, it moved. And something was tickling his nose. As soon as he opened his eyes, he realized he had slept with his head on someone’s chest and it was hair that kept tickling him. And that’s when it all came rushing back. The club. Irrational amounts of alcohol. How he had kissed his best friend. And above all, that the only reason it hadn’t ended in sex was that they had fallen asleep. With a jerk he sat up and was promptly met with Dave looking at him sleepily.

‘Oh, finally awake, I see,’ Dave said, his voice rough and slightly deeper than usual. Biting his lip, Kurt tried to suppress a moan.

‘Why didn’t you wake me?’

Dave smiled at him. ‘Why _would_ I have woken you up? You never sleep enough anyway, you always just work.’ Kurt could feel his hands get sweaty and his cheeks heat up. Uh-oh. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all.

‘Work! I need to get to work!” Kurt exclaimed in a panic. Then he jumped up. Thankful that they hadn’t gotten around to undressing each other fully, he grabbed his shoes and jacket and ran out, only shouting a hasty ‘I’ll call you later’ before he closed the door behind him.

—-

'Sebastian, something terrible happened.'

'I'm guessing you're not talking about your hair, are you?' Sebastian teased him, smirking good-naturedly.

Kurt just looked at him, his eyes opened widely and his skin sickly pale. 

'Okay, no jokes, buzzkill. What happened? Everyone alive and well?'

'I almost slept with Dave.'

Sebastian looked at him, for a moment he’s eerily quiet. Then he burst out into laughter, clearly not able to help himself. 

'You know, when I told you to get him a rebound, I didn't actually envision you.'

'It's not funny. It's… It's terrible. What if our friendship won't survive this?'

'Don't be so over dramatic. Our little bear would rather stop watching hockey than stop being friends with you. He probably dreams regularly about being glued to you. The wet kind.'

'Can't you be helpful for once in your life? Without making a sarcastic comment?' Sebastian rolled his eyes. 'Calm down, sweetheart. Just talk to him, even if it feels too difficult. If you don't it'll always stand between you and it will keep growing bigger. Believe me, I've had my fair share of people who started getting embarrassed after we fucked and putting your cards on the table is the only thing that helps.'

Kurt groaned. He didn’t look forward to that at all.

—-

Maybe Sebastian had been wrong. Maybe they could do this without ever mentioning the club again. They were adults, after all. Kurt exhaled slowly, pushing all the air out of his lungs until he couldn’t go farther. The doorbell rang. Dread rushed up in Kurt, a heavy weight settling on his shoulders. Every step felt difficult. He opened the door, a wide, fake-as-plastic smile on his face.

‘Hi!’ Kurt said, his voice almost a squeak. Dave opened his mouth, then closed it again and decided to just nod at Kurt. Opening the door a bit wider in silent invitation, Kurt went to the living room. He heard the door close, followed by Dave walking in after him. Instead of letting himself fall onto the couch as usual, though, Dave stayed standing near the doorway. Kurt cleared his throat.

'Well… How are you?'

'Fine, fine. Just… fine.' Nervously Dave whipped up and down on his toes. Kurt couldn't help but curse his drunken self. This disaster was his fault and his alone. They had never been so awkward around each other, always knowing what to talk about and how to joke around. But the atmosphere between them had grown tense and neither knew what to say.

‘So, any ideas what to get Tana for her birthday? When I asked she said she won’t even pretend to want nothing, we should just get her something big.’ Dave chuckled uneasily. Kurt tried to come up with something, but his mind just kept replaying how he had ran from Dave’s bed like a big coward.

Needless to say, Dave didn’t stay much longer.

—-

Asking Dave to meet him again after the debacle the previous day had been one of the hardest things Kurt was sure he had ever done. His finger had hovered over the _send_ button countless times before he had finally found the courage to touch it. Every time he had thought about just deleting the text, Sebastian’s words popped up in his mind again.

_It will keep growing bigger._

While the situation was bad right now, Kurt knew that he couldn’t risk making it worse. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing Dave as a friend. There was a feeling nagging him, telling him that their night together had changed things already. That friendship wasn’t enough anymore. The thought of Dave’s arms bulging as he picked Kurt up, of Dave’s tongue drawing a pattern on his skin made Kurt shiver. Just as the thought of Dave’s gentle smile made his heart beat faster.

However, Kurt pushed it all resolutely out of his mind. They were friends. Had been for years now. And that was what counted. He looked at Dave with shaky determination.

‘Okay, we can do this. Dave… We need to talk. We can’t keep dancing around each other like this. Everything turned so uncomfortable and it’s my fault and I’m sorry.’

Dave started shaking his head wildly.

‘It’s not your fault. I could have stopped you. But I didn’t want to. Probably, if you hadn’t kissed me, I would have done it.’

‘What are you saying?’

‘I’m telling you that like you. As more than a friend.’ Kurt was sure his heart was trying to beat out of his chest. This couldn’t be happening.

'You're my best friend. I can' the your rebound. I can't lose our friendship.'

'I'm not searching for a rebound.'

Kurt huffed out a bitter laugh. ‘What else would it be?’

'Kurt, if I really wanted a rebound, I could have got myself one ages ago. I had options. People were looking at me even when we were out at the club, I'm not that blind. And you're _my_ best friend, I’d never use you like this.’ He paused, then his tone turned more joking. ‘Sebastian maybe, we both know it’d never get awkward with him.’

'So you're saying sex with me would be awkward?'

'Stop twisting my words. I'm saying using you for sex and then jumping back to being friends with you when I don't need a rebound anymore would be awkward.'

'I guess so. We did behave kind of awkward after… after the club,’ Kurt nodded.

'Yep. And it's stupid. I couldn't stand it to have this weird atmosphere between us, we haven't behaved like that since high school.' Kurt looked coyly up at him from beneath his eyelashes.

'You told me you loved me in high school.' Dave smiled and a happy feeling spread inside of Kurt. This was a full smile that reached Dave’s warm eyes.

'I'm telling you now I'm falling in love with you again.'

Kurt hesitated, biting his lip nervously. ‘But you haven’t loved me all those years, right? That would be kind of creepy.’

'God, no! Do you know me at all? I'm the worst liar ever, how would I have been able to keep something like that from you for years?'

'I don't know, you wouldn't have. We tell each other everything.'

'And that's why I'm telling you again now that my feelings changed. Because I don't keep secrets from you.' Growing restless, Kurt fidgeted in his seat, but Dave continued to smile calmly. Kurt had always liked to compared Dave to a rock, nothing was ever able to faze him until his break-up. Looked like his rock was back.

'I'm trying to process it, but I don't get it. You have been sad for months?'

'Being sad and falling in love isn't mutually exclusive. I got over Marc, but the sadness lingered. And you kept trying so hard to cheer me up. You weren't the only one, for example Seb and Tana tried, too. It was so cute, how they would send me texts saying 'Sun is shining, there's a hockey tournament on the sports channel, it's like God is trying to make you happy. Disgusting'. They were just so helpless and awkward about it, it was almost funny. But you were different. You see a problem, you roll up your sleeves and get shit done and you don't rest until you worked it out. You're unstoppable. It's… It's super attractive.'

Pressing his hands on his cheeks, Kurt could feel how they grew hotter. He knew it, he had to be a bright red now.

'Stop… saying those things.'

'Why would I stop? It's true.'

'Aren't you afraid at all that this will go horribly wrong and we'll end up hating each other?'

'No. Because we've been through so much already together, Kurt. And we're still here, we came out of it all as best friends. I'd never let anything come between what we have. Just like you didn’t let my sadness come between us.'

Kurt only stared at him, breathing heavily. He didn’t know what to say. His best friend was in love with him. _Dave_ was in love with him. As he kept trying to think straight, the only thing clear to Kurt was that his thoughts were racing one hundred miles an hour. What was he supposed to do? How was he expected to react?

Dave looked at him with concern in his eyes.

'Are you okay? It's okay if you don't return my feelings, but you get that I couldn't hide them from you, either, right?' 

It didn’t help, Kurt’s breathing stayed fast and irregular. Slowly he turned paler. Cautiously Dave wrapped his arms around Kurt, not sure whether it would help or make the situation worse. But Kurt returned the hug faster and tighter than ever before, holding onto Dave like a lifeline. Dave relaxed. ‘Just breathe slowly. Breathe in. 1… 2… 3… And out. 1… 2… 3…’

The moment Kurt calmed down, it was like all energy left him and it seemed as if Dave’s arms were the only thing keeping him on his feet.

'Of course I want to be with you, you jerk,' Kurt mumbled teary eyed. Dave looked at him shocked.

'What?'

'You just want me to repeat it.' Kurt grinned. Finally, for the first time in days, he could feel his confidence returning. This was his Dave. Panic or doubt were unnecessary.

'Because I'm not sure if I heard the right thing. For a second I thought my confession actually gave you a heart attack or something, I never expected to get something back.'

'I didn't expect to fall in love with you and then you kissed me and everything changed. And I hate how… no matter how afraid I am or what doubts I have, you always have the right answer. I could have told you _again_ that I just want us to be friends and you would have taken it. You’re the sweetest, most gentle and humble man I’ve ever met. I don’t know how not to be falling in love with you.’

When their lips met, fireworks erupted. Every nerve ending felt as if it was on fire. Thinking back later, Kurt could have sworn that they had somehow magically learned how to float.

This kiss felt right. The arms wrapped around each other felt safe. In this moment they knew that no matter what would happen, they would face it together. Happily.


End file.
